clearing up termanology

I am just hoping to get on the right page. I see a lot of terms bandied about; some of which I think have different meanings for different people. I myself can't keep them straight and am left wondering about syntax and semantics of what terms enter our forum threads and conversations.

A big one for me is therapist as that has multiple meanings. While some that use the term are full fledged psychologists, it can also be used by social workers, and counsellors. A good example of what I am getting at is those using the term that in reality are professionally not a therapist at all. This could be a spiritual advisor (which really scares me that they are counselling people), this could be someone with a several week course in wellness. I myself was shocked to discover the 'therapist' assigned to me in my online therapy was in actuality a university student studying social work. Alarming. Anyway, I am left wondering at the differences, particularly in education, there is from one to the other and what people consider is legitimate or not. Also, do you know exactly what the person providing your therapy is?

Lets move on to another - transference. I think there exists a difference of opinion on what this is and to what the scale of feelings reaches the point of saying it occurs. For example I have a very chummy relationship with my psychiatrist. He even has one of my paintings on the wall. Some would say this falls into the definition of transference yet I think that couldn't be further from the truth. But, is it after all? What then would be the definition of the point at which a professional relationship has gone too far - particularly my interpretation of it?

Rupture - what is that exactly? Does it mean a simple coming to the end of therapy or does this entail some sort of refusal on the part of the therapist to provide services to the client? Does this describe some sort of disagreement?

Anyway, I am really interested in your thoughts on this.

I've seen both psychologists and licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs). Psychologists have a PhD, while LCSWs have an MSW. But to work with clients, both have to go through a considerable amount of training and supervised hours with clients. The nature of their coursework can also be a bit different, but someone else could perhaps better speak to that. I know there are also licensed professional counselors (LPC), but I am not clear on what training they go through. And I think a licensed marriage and family therapist (MFT). The fact that they're all "licensed" would mean they have to be registered with a governing board and I believe need to have taken an exam and shown they had the required number of clinical hours. You can generally confirm their license online to see that they're legitimate. They should also be willing to answer questions about their training. Oh, and they have to do continuing education, like going to conferences, seminars, etc. to maintain their license (at least LCSWs and PhDs do). Now something like a life coach, spiritual advisor, etc., it's less clear.

I'll answer the others in a separate post.

To my mind transference is a very tricky term. The usual interpretation is that when strong positive or loving feelings occur then this is transference. However, transferences can be all sorts and they can be very subtle and for the T's working with transference this is all very important.

I wouldn't bother trying to define transference exactly because it can happen in any situation and in an infinitely many number of ways. Whether some situation has a significant component of transference in it cannot be said without careful analysis. But in typical situation this is really irrelevant and it only becomes really important in therapies that extensively utilise therapy.

So, I would say that most probably your interactions with your psychiatrist include all sorts of transferences but unless you are attempting to do some transference-based therapy together, it's probably not that relevant.

LT already explained the US versions of what therapists can be. I think it's not legal to say you're a therapist if you're not one of those things, but I'm not sure.

In my country it's a bit different, therapists are only psychologists, i.e. people who studied psychology and completed any kind of degree in that, it doesn't need to be a PhD, or psychiatrists, i.e. somebody who has studied medicine and completed additional training in psychology. Seeing you're from Canada, it might be a good idea to check what the exact legal requirements for calling yourself a therapist are there.

I know what my therapist is, he's a psychiatrist. He has a license and goes to trainings that are documented with a diploma every two years. I could probably ask to see all his diplomas and stuff, but given that my health insurance covers my therapy, I assume he's really a psychiatrist.

Transference is not the same as a relationship going too far. Transference is the concept of having had certain feelings towards a certain person in your life, but now redirecting your feelings towards another person. For example, you might have been mad early on in your life when your mom didn't allow you to do things, such as inviting friends over, staying up past 8, getting a toy you really wanted and so on. Now your therapist might not allow certain things, for example contact outside set hours. You might get mad at your therapist for setting those boundaries. The idea of transference is that you are actually not mad about your therapists behavior, rather you are mad at your mom.

Transference happens everywhere in life. It's unconscious most of the time, and you do it probably multiple times a day. In therapy, it is used to understand your behaviors and feelings. If you understand that you get mad whenever somebody sets boundaries because of how your mom mistreated you as a child, you can learn to not be constantly upset.
Sometimes people see transference as a negative thing, but really the terminology is pretty clear, it's just that transference can be pretty complicated to understand (if not impossible) and the feelings that arise can be very intense.

Rupture: as far as I have seen on this forum, this is a big fallout with your therapist. Often it happens in the heat of the moment, say the client says something that criticizes the therapist, the therapists slips up and gets a bit angry, the client then feels scared or gets angry as well or whatever the reaction might be and it becomes a bigger issue. Often, if not always with ruptures, the client leaves upset and feels that something about the relationship is now broken. You don't trust the therapist anymore, or you are still angry after a day or two, and so on. It doesn't mean therapy has to end, lots of people on here have worked through such things (and my T actually says these are the most important events in therapy), but of course sometimes people disagree so much that therapy does indeed end.

I think Chicken Noodle Soup did a really good job explaining about transference and ruptures. With transference, the feelings you have towards your T isn't really towards your T but towards someone else in your life or in your past but they are "transferred" onto the therapist. Likewise, the therapist can have counter-transference where they have feelings towards you that aren't really about you but are directed or "transferred" onto you. It could be as simple as your T dresses and does her hair the same way your aunt Betsy does and so you have feelings towards your T that are really feelings towards your aunt Betsy. But it's usually more complicated than that. Kit.

Thanks for this thread. I’m always open to questions. I’m less sure about people who think they know all the answers, especially about other people’s motivations. It’s quite scary to consult a professional to be torn down. It’s not optimal how many people don’t have ears apparently. I try to listen to others and not attack them. I could have turned into a horrible person after being abused by so many. But I didn’t. I sometimes think the only term we really need is “human”

Google can also help with definitions. Google Scholar if you want more academic results.

I also like ChickenNoodleSoup's definitions of transference and rupture. I personally don't like the word "rupture", I find it too dramatic. In therapy, I think it's basically a more serious conflict that gets in the way of the previous flow of therapy.

For transference, I like to learn from it a lot but I think it is also useful to note that these are typically triggered feelings. I doubt that there are many cases when a client just projects something onto the T that has nothing to do with what happens in therapy at all. Some therapists do use the concept of transference to avoid responsibility, claiming that it belongs to the client's past and they did nothing wrong or otherwise to elicit it.

As others said previously, in the US LCSW (a licensed social worker) is also considered psychotherapist and can provide therapy, as well as be employed as a social worker.

"Transference" has nothing to do with the boundaries of your relationship with the therapist and with how loose or tight they are. The term generally refers to the variety of feelings evoked in the client that have more to do with the clients previous life experiences than with the objective reality of who the therapist is and what they do.

Rupture is basically a conflict between the therapist and the client that results in the therapy work coming to a halt or an impasse, which may or may not be overcome. I think, the reason why the term "rupture" is used instead of just conflict is because conflicts usually get resolved and are not expected to last forever and to end the work or the relationship. Usually, even during conflicts the relationship or the work still continues. Marriages, relationships go through conflicts all the time and still remain intact. The same with work environments. There might be conflicts between co-workers, a worker and a manager, but the work still goes on. In life, it gets a good number of conflicts usually to come to a rupture of some connection or some process. "Rupture" in therapy points to the process being interrupted by the conflict. It doesn't always happen, but it happens more times than it doesn't. But yeah, essentially, it's a conflict that doesn't get resolved.

You wouldn't notice the transference with him or experience it strongly enough to parse it out from other feelings because you have a chummy relationship.

When you are with a T who doesn't reveal anything--such as body language, words, emotions--the transference is very stark. When it's that concrete, it's easy to see what comes from you and what comes from the other person. It really is pronounced.

I agree with some other definitions of "rupture" mentioned here. I'd say it differs from a conflict, in that a conflict is just sort of a bump in the road, while I'd think of a rupture as something that threatens the therapeutic relationship. In my case, something that makes me wonder if I can still trust the T, if I feel I can continue working with them (since I need that trust).

I think with transference...it can show itself intense feelings that don't really match up to the situation. For example, when I had paternal transference for ex-marriage counselor, he might have done something that upset me, but it hit me at a much deeper level than it seemed like it should have. And it's because it was tapping into childhood stuff. In my case, the transference was more idealized, like I saw him as an ideal father figure (who I wish I'd had), and then when he shared things that seemed to conflict with that, it was very jarring. I had a bit of negative maternal transference for my ex-T, where it was like I was expecting her to react certain ways because my mom did, so it made me reluctant to talk about certain things. With current T, it's almost like I have...therapist transference (I assume that's a thing?), because at times I fear he'll react the same way ex-T or ex-MC did to something I talk about, when he's a very different person and therapist than either of them. So it's like I'm projecting that onto him. Hope that makes sense...

Transference is a general phenomenon. But in terms of how it's used (or abused) in talk therapy, this for me is the crux of it:

"Transference is psychological interference that can never be ethical. It is a calculated abuse. Sure, it addresses itself as a functional abuse, one that must be in some way didactic, but it is in the transference where one of a person's most precious gifts, i.e. the ability to love for instance (and of course often too the erotic fantasy that goes along with it) seems so often exploited, toyed with, humiliated."

This has been my experience too, with one therapist. I didn’t get far enough with the others to know who they were, whether they were ethical. I left them.

This absolutely is not true for me. I have experienced tons of transferences in therapy and there has been nothing unethical and nothing abusive in the way my therapist has handled them. Quite the opposite - he has always handled all my feelings, whether true or transferential, it doesn't even matter, with great acceptance and respect and I have gained a lot from it. More in fact that I could ever imagine to gain.

I don't know whose quote it is but it certainly isn't truth. Also, there is a huge difference in the definition/description of a phenomenon and someone's judgement about it (as is the above quote) which is just someone's personal opinion about it.